Sandeshkhali: ED raids multiple locations linked to Sheikh Shahjahan

India Today reported that the ED conducted raids on a brick kiln belonging to Sheikh Shahjahan in Sandeshkhali in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district. The raids were done in connection with a land grab case filed against Sheikh Shahjahan, it reported 

Several teams of the central agency reportedly reached Sandeshkhali around 6.30am. The ED officials are accompanied by paramilitary personnel.

The development comes a week after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials and forensic experts searched Sheikh Shahjahan’s home and a market he owns in Sandeshkhali on March 8.

Sheikh Shahjahan, who has been accused of sexual violence and land grab in Sandeshkhali village, was arrested on February 29 morning by the West Bengal Police.

He was handed over to the CBI on March 6 under orders of the Calcutta high court and in the midst of a raging political row.

Unrest in Sandeshkhali

The island village of Sandeshkhali in the North 24 Parganas district has been in the eye of the storm since January 5, when ED officers arrived to search the home of Shahjahan, a close aide of former minister Jyoti Priya Mallick, who was arrested in October last year in connection with an alleged ration distribution scam. The ED team came under attack from an angry mob, leaving three officers injured.

On February 7, other violent protests began erupting in Sandeshkhali and other nearby villages, with groups of residents led mostly by local women, alleging sexual harassment at the hands of local TMC leaders including Sheikh Shahjahan, his brother Sirajuddin, and other associates Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar. Other villages have claimed that Shahjahan and his associates also indulged in landgrab.

Shahjahan, a former TMC zila parishad leader, was arrested by the state police on the orders of the high court on February 29. The CID later took over the investigation.